


Changing Times

by Aviss



Series: Outside looking in [2]
Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-20
Updated: 2019-04-20
Packaged: 2020-01-20 21:28:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18533494
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aviss/pseuds/Aviss
Summary: Court is a pit of vipers, Sansa knows, but sometimes it will give her a new perspective on someone she knows.





	Changing Times

**Author's Note:**

> So I wanted to do a companion of Outside Looking in to show Jaime in court from Sansa's eyes, but this ended up being more about Sansa and Jaime than him and Brienne.  
> Oh well, I still have something else in the works with everyone defending Brienne, which is something I would love to see, and which I will hopefully finish soon

If someone had told Sansa before it would come a time when she would hate court, she would have not believed it. The court was where the stories happened, where the romance between brave knights and beautiful ladies was born, where she was supposed to shine with all her lessons and natural gifts. She had been so excited when they had left Winterfell, poor naive summer child that she had been.

She knew better now, and couldn't help but loathe having to leave the North to attend; how could she not hate it when she knew it was a pit of vipers? She disliked the endless manoeuvring and falseness of courtiers, most of whom had cowered in their keeps during the wars. 

Not that anyone would try to ridicule or embarrass her now; Sansa was in court as the Lady of Winterfell and Warden of the North, wife of the Hand of Queen and sister/cousin to the King. There were only two people in Westeros who held as high a position in the court, reluctant as they also were to be there. 

They also happened to be the only people Sansa cared about in that entire place.

Unfortunately she had lost Brienne an hour ago, when Daenerys had insisted Sansa went with her to see new gowns in the mereenese style which had just arrived at King's Landing; Sansa had wanted to see them, even if she wasn't that same frivolous child who had first arrived at the capital, she still had an eye for fashion, and very little of it arrived at Winterfell. She also enjoyed spending time with Daenerys, rocky as their start had been they soon found out they had many things in common, and somehow they seemed to become giggling girls when left together alone, something they sorely needed considering their childhood had been cut short. 

She looked around the gardens, hoping to find Brienne's towering form, but couldn't see her. She could see Jaime's golden head, though, and headed his way in case Tyrion was with him. 

Sansa had not fully warmed up to Jaime; how could she when he'd had an active hand in the pain inflicted on her family? They all knew by now it had been he who pushed Bran out of the tower window, Jaime had admitted it himself after the Long Night. She could remember how Arya had held the dagger to his throat as he knelt in front of their brother, not asking for forgiveness but for judgement, his only hand extended to hold back Brienne and Tyrion.

"I have to do this," he had said that day, not taking his eyes from Bran's, though the words were intended for his brother and wife. "If you love me, you will allow his judgement." 

Bran had stared at him in that emotionless way Sansa found so unnerving. "And if I demand to take your other hand as payment for my legs?" he had asked, and the way Jaime's face had paled and his arm had trembled made it clear this was a fate worse than death for him. He had closed his eyes and swallowed, and when he had opened them there was nothing but resignation in their depths. He had moved only to grab Widow's Wail from his hip, then extended his left arm with his sword clasped in his hand and offered it to Bran. 

"Please strike true, my sword is sharp enough to make it a clean cut." His voice had rung clear in the room, Brienne's protests drowned by it.

"I'll take your sword but not the hand," Bran had said after a minute in which neither of them moved or blinked. "Swear it to my family as Lady Brienne did, become our shield against your sister and I will consider our score even." Bran had nodded to Arya, who had removed the dagger and taken a step back while Jaime Lannister swore his service to the Stark family with a voice choked with emotion and tears on his face.

He had been true to his word, surprising many people who had warned the Starks not to trust an Oathbreaker, and even saved Arya's life during the battle of King's Landing, allowing her to strike the last name off her list.

"We will return to Tarth as soon as my Lady wife gives birth and our child is old enough to travel," he was saying to a captive audience of Lords and Ladies from the Westerlands, his voice conveying such boredom Sansa was surprised he wasn't yawning. Once upon a time, Sansa would have known all of them by name and heraldry, but the war had taken many houses and put others in their place, and she cared little to learn of them if they weren't in the North.

One of the ladies, no older than Sansa herself and very pretty in a bland and unassuming way, leaned forward and smiled coquettishly. A wasted effort, Jaime was famously blind to the charms of any woman he wasn't madly in love with. "Tarth? But surely you must spend time in Casterly Rock?" she said, her voice soft and inviting. "What can there be of interest in a tiny island?" She recognized her then, Lora Leygood who had been recently married to Lord Sarsfield, already currying favour with their Lord Paramount. Lord Kenning of Kayce was in the group as well, staring at Jaime with open amusement.

"My wife hails from Tarth and there is nothing more interesting in the Seven Kingdoms, my lady," Jaime said blandly, though his eyes sparked with irritation. 

"Is your wife the Lady Tarth?" Lord Kenning asked snidely as if he didn't know the answer. "Shouldn't she be Lady Lannister?"

Jaime shrugged, apparently unconcerned. Sansa knew better, had been always wary of the Lannister's poisonous tongue and quick tempers. "She is the Lady of Tarth, or will be when the Evenstar steps down, she doesn't need my title when she already has one of her own."

" _And you let her_?" Lord Kenning said with a dismissive chuckle. "I also heard you let her wear breeches and carry a sword, you are too permissive Lord Lannister." _Too weak_ , Sansa heard as clearly as everyone else around did. 

Jaime just arched up an eyebrow. "Have you seen my Lady wife wielding her Valyrian steel, Lord Kenning? I happen to like my wife in breeches almost as much as I like her out of them, but there is no _letting her_ anything, she is strong enough to know and do what she wants." 

The ladies tittered amused and Lord Kenning snorted contemptuously. "You allow your woman to make important decisions like that? Are you not stronger than her? Does she also make the decisions in the bedroom, my lord?"

Sansa couldn't believe what she was hearing, Jaime's lack of response had emboldened the Lord and was skirting the boundaries of propriety. Lord Kenning was very close to giving offence. Jaime only looked amused now, though, as if he didn't care he was being insulted. He probably didn't, Sansa realized, he had been called Kingslayer and Oathbreaker for most of his life, being called weak for choosing a strong woman wouldn't even register as an insult and only sparked amused mischief in him. Try to insult his wife, though, and Jaime Lannister would rip you apart like the lion of his sigil. 

"Oh she does," he smiled like the cat who got the cream. "you should try it, Lord Kenning, you won't see my wife's eyes straying to other men when I satisfy her the way she likes. _And I do satisfy her, often and well_." Lady Kenning was nowhere close to the group, but it was just the work of a minute to locate her not too far from them, chatting merrily with some Lord from the Reach, her smile a tad too flirtatious to be fully innocent. Sansa hid her smile behind her hand and walked up to Jaime before he could make things worse. He wasn't done, though. "We have a Queen in the Iron Throne, two Ladies in the small council and three Ladies as Paramount, are you sure you know what the proper place for women is these days?"

It was the perfect cue for her to enter the conversation. "I'm sure he'll find out soon, my good-brother," Sansa said, placing her hand on Jaime's arm with a smile, her eyes never straying from Lond Kenning, who had flushed in indignation and was opening his mouth to retort. "My Lords, my Ladies, I'm sorry to deprive you of his company but I need my good-brother to help me find my Lord Husband." She practically dragged Jaime away from the group, walking in silence until they were well away from all courtiers."Lady Brienne will have your tongue if she hears you speaking like that, Lord Jaime." She could hear the reluctant amusement in her voice, and so could he.

He shot her a look of pleased surprise. This was the first time Sansa had spoken to him of her own volition, without the presence of Tyrion or Brienne to act as a buffer between them. "She won't, she likes my tongue very much." He wagged his eyebrows suggestively and Sansa couldn't help but laugh and then blush hotly, wondering if the brothers were equally talented in that area. He laughed at her reaction and then turned serious. "But it needs to be said, times have changed; it's time the Lords and Ladies change as well."

Same as he had done. Sansa finally could see he wasn't the same man who had crippled her bother, and if Bran could see past that, she could at least try to get to know this man as her husband had asked her to. 

"Let's find your brother and wife, Lord Jaime, and see if we can arrange for a private dinner away from this pit of vipers. We should get to know each other better, we're family after all."

And family always came first.

...


End file.
